VSH Queen disappeared.

[fadder]

I bought a bred VSH Queen and put her in a weak have on Thursday. Checking today the cage was empty but no sign of the marked queen. I am sure without a doubt she is gone. I have stronger hives nearby and one has a capped queen cell and several queen cups in a supersedure position. What are everyone's thoughts on moving a frame with the queen cell to the weaker hive.

[BeeMaster2]

Did you look for eggs?
I would give her a little more time to start laying eggs. Queens are very good and hiding.
Jim

[Waveeater]

I would give it a few more days at least. I've had some queens Appear after looking for them for severL days. I had one actuall fly off while I was looking at the frame. She was gone for a few days before she reappeared.

[beepro]

I would use a QE and put the cap cells frame in the top box.  If they don't like the cells they will
destroy them otherwise you will have a new queen in there.   If after a few inspection you don't find the vsh
mark queen  then allow the virgin to take over by removing the QE.   This will buy you some time to find the mark queen.

[sc-bee]

I would use a QE and put the cap cells frame in the top box.  If they don't like the cells they will
destroy them otherwise you will have a new queen in there.   If after a few inspection you don't find the vsh
mark queen  then allow the virgin to take over by removing the QE.   This will buy you some time to find the mark queen.

You don't think an unmated queen can slip a queen excluder???

[texanbelchers]

You don't think an unmated queen can slip a queen excluder???

Well, the book says NO...

I've got some very small queens this year that even after laying aren't much larger than some of the other workers.  They are from a Hopkins method experiment that rendered way too many queen cells.  I'm concerned they may be able to walk right through.  We'll see.

[Michael Bush]

I think ANY queen can get through an excluder if she is determined enough.  Or at least get stuck in it.  I found one stuck in an excluder once, and have over the last 44 years seen a few queens who got through.  They were laying queens.  The thorax is what doesn't let them through and the size of their thorax doesn't change.

[gunswayne]

I put a queen that was advertised as mated in with a trap out at the end of May. She disappeared and there was no brood when I checked at the 2 week mark. Ordered another queen. Fast forward a week and a half, I go to put the new queen in and the missing queen was back and laying like crazy. I?m assuming she wasn?t bred and was on mating flight when I first checked.

[fadder]

Well I checked again today. No queen, no larva, no eggs. I did
have some emerging brood. Very little capped brood. So iI am getting
ready to order another vsh queen.

[sc-bee]

The thorax is what doesn't let them through and the size of their thorax doesn't change.

And all this time I thought it was the abdomen... thanks

[fadder]

Well I went out one last time and double checked myself.
There is no queen, no eggs, no larva, very little capped brood
and some emerging bees. That is it. Also I saw no drones at
all. There are still bees hatching but there are very few left to hatch.
I am feeding the ones that are there and they seem to be eagerly
 consuming part of a pollen patty I placed in the hive. I did see a few
empty queen cups but of course no eggs in them either. I should receive
a new queen on Wed. and I will see if they accept her. I may spray them with
sugar water with lemon grass oil in it and see if that helps with acceptance.

[beepro]

Back in the middle of June, I had a big virgin that emerged in the top box with
a QE on.  As she was trying to slip through the QE to get to the bottom box, I took some
pics of her and a vid too.  She was so determined to get through but cannot.  Her large thorax was in the way.  However, the dinky queen that was mated back in Jan. can slip through a QE with ease.  I forgot about this and put her inside a 3 queens hive divided by the QEs.  Then quickly put her back in her own hive after a day without any issue. 

So yes, a large thorax queen cannot slip by but a small thorax queen can.  The normal QE on the market today is design for large thorax queen only.  I can only say that a smart queen will not push her thorax through until it got stuck.  I use the plastic QE not the metal type.  My queen will ease herself with it.